Should Have Called This Nonsense "From Ashes Back To Trashes"
Negative Points
1. No proper written character for the ML & the FL. The story is shot solely from the perspective of the FL. But the transitions are too fast for me to even connect with her. ML so far feels like the loyal hound of the FL who only barks if the FL permits it (No offence to the actors, honestly, but I am absolutely seething due to this stupid writing). There is nothing that can evoke an emotional connection with any of the leads. I absolutely love female-centric revenge dramas. However, in this drama, the FL is an absolute moron, honestly. She is weak, useless, and hardly has any brain. Sorry to say, but as much as I like Chen Duling, turning and giving creepy looks is not enough to convince me that she is smart enough to outsmart her enemies if she keeps getting into trouble and fails to come out of it by herself. She mostly falls into her own traps and just cries like a child. This is absolutely ridiculous. There is a lack of depth in political conspiracy, especially when the move comes from the FL, which is all superficial and nothing has any depth. If it were a properly written drama and she were not the FL, then she would never have succeeded against those scheming antagonists. I don’t know why they have left out the brain of the FL outside the drama while making the antagonists keep their wits. Was it a deliberate move to make the FL look foolish in front of the viewers? If you don’t want to follow the novel, I don’t mind at all as long as it has been written well. What I hate most is to mislead the viewers by promoting the FL as a strong, ruthless one, but then reducing the FL to being the total opposite of what was promised. Why make her strong in the name only, but fail to present her on screen like that? If you can’t brainstorm on how to present her as a strong, independent, intelligent person, then you should have hired a better screenwriter. This is completely unacceptable. While I understand she is a human being and can’t possibly outsmart so many damn smart villains all the time, she should not also be like a complete idiot. Moreover, to show the FL smart and independent, you don’t need to present the ML as a guard dog. There does not need to be much screen time as long as the characters have enough depth, and you have a good actor to play it out. Both the leads are total victims of this drunk on short drama style writing, horrendous voice dubbing, and 4x speed direction with an overdose of red filters.
2. The acting is absolutely weak from both leads. While Zhou Yiran was still somewhat passable in emotional scenes, Chen Duling was absolutely poor. I could hardly feel her emotions. She is normally good at giving cold murduerous looks. But I don’t know what happened, but her acting was not good at all. She was so good in the Glory and I was so eager to watch the actress-director duo from the Glory but was utterly disappointed. The production team did Zhou Yi Ran dirty again as though he is the ML, but he seems to exist only to keep this dumb FL alive to give creepy looks in fancy costumes. The production team did the most dirty to Chen Duling, honestly. How come her character is reduced to being a damsel in distress despite it being a female-centric drama? Did she achieve anything post her rebirth? Actors can’t really perform brilliantly with a half baked utter stupid script. The screenwriter and producer are the key people who need to take the blame for his half-written garbage. Complete waste of an actor like Zhou Yiran. Except for a few emotional scenes, he looked flat to me. Chen Duling was probably struggling with how to present this poorly written garbage kind of bad FL’s Character. The screenwriters should probably think about changing their profession.
3. The direction and screenplay felt absolutely sloppy. Does the director have a flight to catch? If not, why is everything moving so damn fast that the entire story feels like a compilation of flashbacks? All of the action scenes look like they just started and ended in 10x. No catchy or gorgeous moves. No proper battle or even fight sequence. Looks like everyone is in a hurry. Why is during the battle, despite a veteran military general (who works under her father) being present, she, who has no idea about military battle tactics, is leading the battle? She does not know any self-defence at episode 01. But suddenly knows archery at the ambush at the bandits' lair, knows battle tactics, and now suddenly knows swordplay. What is this rubbish? At least write consistently. Are they so short of budget that they can’t even arrange for battle armor for the ML and the FL? The FL goes to the battlefield to face the enemy general in her Grand Princess makeup and attarir and jewellery to give a poorly written speech of patriotism or whatever it was. Then suddenly comes out of nowhere to reinforce the ML and gets trapped along with him to create an opening for the FL’s mother, who suddenly came and baam sacrificed herself to force poorly acted melodrama in the middle of the battlefield. Can this FL do anything other than crying and giving big melodramatic speeches? I am tired of watching her do foolish things. Who wrote this rubbish? I will avoid this screenwriter’s further work.
4. No chemistry between the leads. Their romance story feels shallow and based on life-saving graces. The actors have absolutely zero chemistry. In many scenes, Chen Duling felt awkward to me. The romantic scenes between the leads start out of nowhere, looking misplaced and unnatural. Even their misunderstanding felt so rushed and out of place. Didn’t you trust him the most, and now you won’t even listen properly. Also, why is the ML not explaining properly? For example, the ML got stabbed and is on bed rest, and in the next scene, he is making pastries with the FL in the kitchen while romancing with her hair.
5. There are too many inconsistencies with the story. Why would she scream and alert her enemy if she is so intelligent? The first thing she does after getting a 2nd chance is head straight to the main villain and threaten to kill him for the murder of her father. She is taking the prince back to the palace, which is the most dangerous place during a palace coup. Is she that idiot? She talks a traitor out of committing treason with a few lines. It was a palace coup, but the main villain comes with this little soldier. Is the production house struggling so much that they can’t afford enough extra to make it convincing enough? How come the secret army soldiers are dropping suddenly from above as soon as the signal is sent? How come with this little army, she can stop a palace coup with this many rebel soldiers without any planning, whereas the enemy is too prepared? How is this even believable that she, with this little sloppy planning, managed to stop a man who planned to seize that throne for 2 decades? Would not a man like that have a contingency plan? It’s laughable. During a palace coup, how come the soldiers are falling dead left and right without putting up any fight? It feels like a video game instead of a drama. I would find better thrills in a video game, I guess. The inconsistencies are too much for me to even recite. I might have to write the entire script of the drama.
6. Not only this drama, but many other dramas this year have mocked the viewers with a completely different story in the drama after promising/ misleading it about it being an adaptation of the novel. If it irritates you to write an intelligent, strong, sharp FL along with a proper character for the ML in a female-centric drama, then why pretend to adapt such a novel and destroy it? Just write an original script with whatever you like. Also, in the name of screen space, why did you write such a shallow ML character? Instead, write a proper ML who can shine whatever screentime he gets and adds something of his own to the overall story instead of existing just to serve the purpose of the FL.
Positive Points
1. The only positive thing about this drama is the OST album. It is catchy and melodic, but still NOWHERE NEAR enough to save this sinking ship.
Overall, this is an absolutely shitty drama with nonsense half-developed twists filled with plotholes, which is coupled with poor acting from the leads who have absolutely zero chemistry.
1. No proper written character for the ML & the FL. The story is shot solely from the perspective of the FL. But the transitions are too fast for me to even connect with her. ML so far feels like the loyal hound of the FL who only barks if the FL permits it (No offence to the actors, honestly, but I am absolutely seething due to this stupid writing). There is nothing that can evoke an emotional connection with any of the leads. I absolutely love female-centric revenge dramas. However, in this drama, the FL is an absolute moron, honestly. She is weak, useless, and hardly has any brain. Sorry to say, but as much as I like Chen Duling, turning and giving creepy looks is not enough to convince me that she is smart enough to outsmart her enemies if she keeps getting into trouble and fails to come out of it by herself. She mostly falls into her own traps and just cries like a child. This is absolutely ridiculous. There is a lack of depth in political conspiracy, especially when the move comes from the FL, which is all superficial and nothing has any depth. If it were a properly written drama and she were not the FL, then she would never have succeeded against those scheming antagonists. I don’t know why they have left out the brain of the FL outside the drama while making the antagonists keep their wits. Was it a deliberate move to make the FL look foolish in front of the viewers? If you don’t want to follow the novel, I don’t mind at all as long as it has been written well. What I hate most is to mislead the viewers by promoting the FL as a strong, ruthless one, but then reducing the FL to being the total opposite of what was promised. Why make her strong in the name only, but fail to present her on screen like that? If you can’t brainstorm on how to present her as a strong, independent, intelligent person, then you should have hired a better screenwriter. This is completely unacceptable. While I understand she is a human being and can’t possibly outsmart so many damn smart villains all the time, she should not also be like a complete idiot. Moreover, to show the FL smart and independent, you don’t need to present the ML as a guard dog. There does not need to be much screen time as long as the characters have enough depth, and you have a good actor to play it out. Both the leads are total victims of this drunk on short drama style writing, horrendous voice dubbing, and 4x speed direction with an overdose of red filters.
2. The acting is absolutely weak from both leads. While Zhou Yiran was still somewhat passable in emotional scenes, Chen Duling was absolutely poor. I could hardly feel her emotions. She is normally good at giving cold murduerous looks. But I don’t know what happened, but her acting was not good at all. She was so good in the Glory and I was so eager to watch the actress-director duo from the Glory but was utterly disappointed. The production team did Zhou Yi Ran dirty again as though he is the ML, but he seems to exist only to keep this dumb FL alive to give creepy looks in fancy costumes. The production team did the most dirty to Chen Duling, honestly. How come her character is reduced to being a damsel in distress despite it being a female-centric drama? Did she achieve anything post her rebirth? Actors can’t really perform brilliantly with a half baked utter stupid script. The screenwriter and producer are the key people who need to take the blame for his half-written garbage. Complete waste of an actor like Zhou Yiran. Except for a few emotional scenes, he looked flat to me. Chen Duling was probably struggling with how to present this poorly written garbage kind of bad FL’s Character. The screenwriters should probably think about changing their profession.
3. The direction and screenplay felt absolutely sloppy. Does the director have a flight to catch? If not, why is everything moving so damn fast that the entire story feels like a compilation of flashbacks? All of the action scenes look like they just started and ended in 10x. No catchy or gorgeous moves. No proper battle or even fight sequence. Looks like everyone is in a hurry. Why is during the battle, despite a veteran military general (who works under her father) being present, she, who has no idea about military battle tactics, is leading the battle? She does not know any self-defence at episode 01. But suddenly knows archery at the ambush at the bandits' lair, knows battle tactics, and now suddenly knows swordplay. What is this rubbish? At least write consistently. Are they so short of budget that they can’t even arrange for battle armor for the ML and the FL? The FL goes to the battlefield to face the enemy general in her Grand Princess makeup and attarir and jewellery to give a poorly written speech of patriotism or whatever it was. Then suddenly comes out of nowhere to reinforce the ML and gets trapped along with him to create an opening for the FL’s mother, who suddenly came and baam sacrificed herself to force poorly acted melodrama in the middle of the battlefield. Can this FL do anything other than crying and giving big melodramatic speeches? I am tired of watching her do foolish things. Who wrote this rubbish? I will avoid this screenwriter’s further work.
4. No chemistry between the leads. Their romance story feels shallow and based on life-saving graces. The actors have absolutely zero chemistry. In many scenes, Chen Duling felt awkward to me. The romantic scenes between the leads start out of nowhere, looking misplaced and unnatural. Even their misunderstanding felt so rushed and out of place. Didn’t you trust him the most, and now you won’t even listen properly. Also, why is the ML not explaining properly? For example, the ML got stabbed and is on bed rest, and in the next scene, he is making pastries with the FL in the kitchen while romancing with her hair.
5. There are too many inconsistencies with the story. Why would she scream and alert her enemy if she is so intelligent? The first thing she does after getting a 2nd chance is head straight to the main villain and threaten to kill him for the murder of her father. She is taking the prince back to the palace, which is the most dangerous place during a palace coup. Is she that idiot? She talks a traitor out of committing treason with a few lines. It was a palace coup, but the main villain comes with this little soldier. Is the production house struggling so much that they can’t afford enough extra to make it convincing enough? How come the secret army soldiers are dropping suddenly from above as soon as the signal is sent? How come with this little army, she can stop a palace coup with this many rebel soldiers without any planning, whereas the enemy is too prepared? How is this even believable that she, with this little sloppy planning, managed to stop a man who planned to seize that throne for 2 decades? Would not a man like that have a contingency plan? It’s laughable. During a palace coup, how come the soldiers are falling dead left and right without putting up any fight? It feels like a video game instead of a drama. I would find better thrills in a video game, I guess. The inconsistencies are too much for me to even recite. I might have to write the entire script of the drama.
6. Not only this drama, but many other dramas this year have mocked the viewers with a completely different story in the drama after promising/ misleading it about it being an adaptation of the novel. If it irritates you to write an intelligent, strong, sharp FL along with a proper character for the ML in a female-centric drama, then why pretend to adapt such a novel and destroy it? Just write an original script with whatever you like. Also, in the name of screen space, why did you write such a shallow ML character? Instead, write a proper ML who can shine whatever screentime he gets and adds something of his own to the overall story instead of existing just to serve the purpose of the FL.
Positive Points
1. The only positive thing about this drama is the OST album. It is catchy and melodic, but still NOWHERE NEAR enough to save this sinking ship.
Overall, this is an absolutely shitty drama with nonsense half-developed twists filled with plotholes, which is coupled with poor acting from the leads who have absolutely zero chemistry.
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